Old Email Archive
Return to old archive list
log 7_12_94-7_30_94
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 1994 10:14:13 EDT
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: "Joseph D. Harris"
SUBSCRIBE PHIL-LIT Joseph Harris
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 1994 10:17:10 -0500
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Kurt R Gegenhuber
Subject: Colonialism and Science Fiction
Help! I need either references or a suggestion for another discussion
list
or individual to ask.
My brother John just got a regular role in a new science fiction TV
series
to begin airing this fall on NBC, thus saving his keester, financially.
He
syas the premise of the show goes like this: The Earth has been trashed
by
humans and made uninhabitable. So, a group of humans finds another
planet
to live on. Unfortunately, the new planet already has a native
population,
causing inconveniences for the hapless humans . . . something like
that.
I pointed out to John the fact that the show seems to belong to a long
tradition which closely links science fiction to colonialist rhetoric
and
structures of desire. Since its inception in the Victorian era, SF has
reflected and inscribed a complex of fears, fascinations, claims and
silences about "space" and "the Other" for Western
audiences.
"Cool!" said John, "Send me an article on it. I'll show
it to the director
and some writers." Well, this is exactly why I'm in the early
stages of
writing a dissertation on astronomy and colonialism: There's been
nearly
nothing written about the subject, so far as I can tell. Science
fiction
and colonialism is like the weather--everyone talks about it, but
nobody
DOES anything about it. Everyone recognizes the link, but where's the
scholarly work?
So, what do I send an actor about imperialism that might be useful to
him.
He's heard me talk a little critical theory, he's paged through
Haraway's
"Primate Visions" and read some chapters from "Discipline
and Punish," so
he has a clue about what's in currency nowadays, but afterall, he IS an
actor.
I was thinking Lisa Bloom's "Gender On Ice" or a Journal of
Popular
Culture article by Judith Wilt called "The Imperial Mouth:
Imperialism,
The Gothic and Science Fiction" and a couple others, but nothing
seems to
really lay it out for all to see. Somebody help! Boldly go where no man
has gone before and help me send some scholarship to the GE pinheads!
Reply personally or publicly. Thanks!
--Kurt Gegenhuber
gegen001@maroon.tc.umn.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 1994 11:47:30 EST
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: NASH@UCS.INDIANA.EDU
Subject: Re: Colonialism and Science Fiction
Chap. 3 of Andrew Ross's _Strange Weather_, "Getting out of the
Gernsback
Continuum," offers some discussion of the colonialist dimension of
pulp
SF of the 1930s. His footnotes offer a couple of additional sources
that
I haven't consulted: "SF, Occult Sciences, and Nazi Myths"
_Science-Fiction
Studies_, 1, 3(Spring 1974), 185-97; William B. Fischer, _The Empire
Strikes
Out: Kurd Lasswitz, Hans Dominik, and the Development of German Science
Fiction_ (Bowling Green, 1984); Alan Huntingdon, _Rationalizing Genius:
Ideological Strategies in the Classic American Science Fiction Short
Story_
(Rutgers, 1989).
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 1994 13:05:08 -0500
Reply-To: phoebe@cs.cmu.edu
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Phoebe Sengers
Subject: Re: Colonialism and Science Fiction
In-Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"'s mail message of Wed, 13 Jul 1994 11:47:30 EST
> what do I send an actor about imperialism that might be useful to
him.
There was a nice article in Postmodern Culture recently about
colonialism in Star Trek:
Valerie Fulton: "An Other Frontier: Voyaging West with Mark Twain
and
Star Trek's Imperial Subject." Postmodern Culture v.4 n. 3 (May,
1994).
If you have access to Mosaic / the World Wide Web, it's at URL
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/fulton-v.594.html.
Phoebe Sengers
phoebe@cs.cmu.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 1994 11:55:30 -0700
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Stephen Ogden
Subject: Re: Colonialism and Science Fiction
In-Reply-To: <199407131725.KAA15009@whistler.sfu.ca> from
"Kurt R Gegenhuber"
at Jul 13, 94 10:17:10 am
Kurt: if your brother is not a literary drudge, and you think reading
---- Haraway and Foucault in the same lifetime would be cruel and
unusual punishment, might I suggest C.S. Lewis as a critic of
mankind ever learning "(which God forbid) to travel in space
and spread upon new worlds the vomit of our own corruption."
Lewis' _Out of the Silent Planet_ is a good SF novel, and
very unusual in its time, in its anti-colonization theme;
your artistic brother may learn by enjoyment.
If you wish any critical references, in the following style,
just ask:
"We know what our race does to strangers. Man destroys or
enslaves every species he can. Civilized man murders, enslaves,
cheats, and corrupts savage man. Even inanimate nature he
turns into dust bowls and slag-heaps. There are individuals
who don't. But they are not the sort who are likely to be our
pioneers in space. Our ambassadors to new worlds will be the
needy and greedy adventurer or the ruthless technical expert.
They will do as their kind has always done. What they will
do if they meet things weaker than themselves, the black man
and red man can tell. If they meet things stronger, they will
be, very properly, destroyed."
_Fern Seeds & Elephants_
Stephen Ogden
Computer Systems Division and
Department of English
Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
V3L 4R5 (604)291-4706 (fax)-5052
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 02:10:54 EDT
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: "J. Swift Kramer"
Subject: Re: Colonialism and Scie...
Here are 2 I haven't read on the mailing list so far: Old Dreams of a
New
Reich: Volkish Utopias and National Socialism by Jost Hermand, Indiana
U.
Press, 1992 and an issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (92:4 Fall 1993)
which
will be coming out in expanded (book) form from Duke U. Press in
November of
1994, called Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture. The section
called
"Black to the Future" might be of particular interest. -
JSKramer
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 09:21:17 -0500
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: "james w. maertens"
Subject: Re: Colonialism and Science Fiction
Dear Kurt--
Doing work on science fiction and masculine desire myself, I'd be
interested in
any little bibliography this generates. I happen to have on my desk a
piece by
Ella Shohat from *Public Culture* 3.2 (Spring 1991) called
"Imagining Terra
Incognita: The Disciplinary Gaze of Empire". The language is a
little stiff,
but readable I should think. It deals more with empire than science
fiction per
se, but I got it for some writing I'm doing about Jules Verne. His
books,
though they don't deal with humans colonizing other planets, are steeped
in
colonialism and the power of geographical discourse.
It seems to me that the idea of humans trying to find a home on an
already
inhabited planet sort of inverts the premise of "Alien Nation"
as well as most
of the fifties vintage invasion films. In terms of SF books it might be
fun for
your brother to read, I recommend Suzette Haden Elgin's *Native Tongue*
and its
sequel *Native Tongue II* in which humans, taken over by fundamentalist
Christian idealogues, encounter a galaxy full of aliens who are so much
more
advanced that they treat humans like somewhat amusing and cute
animals--the joke
of course being the inversion of the Euro-Americans confronting their
"savages".
Best of luck on your astronomy and empire project!
--James
*********************************
Dr. James W. Maertens
Adjunct Professor of Humanities
Lakeland Medical-Dental Academy
maert003@maroon.tc.umn.edu
4509 Drew Avenue So.
Minneapolis, MN 55410
(612) 924-9266
*********************************
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 1994 17:27:51 -0500
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Jan Shepherd
Subject: Hi
Hi,
The file that follows will give you a fair idea of what
I'm into. Those who find the ideas of our foundation,
Project Mind, of interest are invited to ask for any or all of:
1. 10 page essay, "Science Can Become Holistic."
2. Subscription info. on our mind/matter list "MOCHIN."
3. A recent S.E.N., "micro" book review on PROJECT MIND.
Basically, we believe science to be the greatest spiritual
undertaking ever, but that many scientists have yet to recognize the
spiritual nature of their vocation. Hopefully, what are now
"Eureka"
sparks of creative vision, that drive the vast mechanical enterprise
we call "science," will become more enduring connections with
the
source of that vision and thus less fragmented and polluting in their
technological "spin-offs."
We'll be pleased to hear from you,
Jan Shepherd
Project Mind Foundation
email: jshepher@loyalistc.on.ca
Materialism is the unconscious conviction that existence
is substantially physical. Just as the restriction of mind
by matter occludes mind, the restriction of matter by mind
reveals mind. - T.Kun
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 1994 06:46:12 CET
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: "vamana@plearn.edu.pl"
Subject: Re: Signoff...
In-Reply-To: Message of Thu,
9 Jun 1994 10:59:01 -0500 from
Please sign me off the conference. Beeing a nulified in Internet
I had some difficulty with doing it myself.
Thanks. Vamana
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 1994 15:47:31 +0000
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Carol Colatrella
Subject: call for papers
You are invited to submit proposals for panels or papers for the next
American Comparative Literature Association meeting at the University
of
Georgia, Athens. The special topic of the meeting is Literature and
Science: Historical and Global Perspectives.
The conference will focus on the multiple interactions between literary
and
scientific discourse in historical and crosscultural contexts. There
will
be three plenary sessions on: Aesthetics and the Rhetoric of Science,
Chaos
Theory and Beyond, and Issues in Literary History and the History of
Science.
Topics for panels are wide-ranging (many mentioned in the most recent
DECODINGS, although other information was omitted), so I encourage
Society
for Literature and Science members and others interested in literature
and
science studies to submit their work.
ACLA guidelines: Each panel may have up to four members and a panel
leader,
and each two-hour session will include an hour-long discussion period.
Paper proposals must include an abstract of 150-250 words and a return
address with institutional affiliation and two telephone numbers.
Deadline for submissions of panel proposals and paper abstracts:
September 30, 1994.
Address proposals and inquiries to:
ACLA '95
Comparative Literature Department, Park Hall
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-6204
phone: 706-542-2140 fax: 706-542-2155
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 1994 15:49:09 +0000
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Carol Colatrella
Subject: ACLA Dates: March 16-18, 1995
PLEASE NOTE THAT ACLA'95 WILL MEET MARCH 16-18, 1995
You are invited to submit proposals for panels or papers for the next
American Comparative Literature Association meeting at the University
of
Georgia, Athens. The special topic of the meeting is Literature and
Science: Historical and Global Perspectives.
The conference will focus on the multiple interactions between literary
and
scientific discourse in historical and crosscultural contexts. There
will
be three plenary sessions on: Aesthetics and the Rhetoric of Science,
Chaos
Theory and Beyond, and Issues in Literary History and the History of
Science.
Topics for panels are wide-ranging (many mentioned in the most recent
DECODINGS, although other information was omitted), so I encourage
Society
for Literature and Science members and others interested in literature
and
science studies to submit their work.
ACLA guidelines: Each panel may have up to four members and a panel
leader,
and each two-hour session will include an hour-long discussion period.
Paper proposals must include an abstract of 150-250 words and a return
address with institutional affiliation and two telephone numbers.
Deadline for submissions of panel proposals and paper abstracts:
September 30, 1994.
Address proposals and inquiries to:
ACLA '95
Comparative Literature Department, Park Hall
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-6204
phone: 706-542-2140 fax: 706-542-2155
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 1994 14:04:26 -0700
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Jerrold Hoeg
Subject: Re: SLS '94 Panel?
In-Reply-To: Message of Mon, 3 Jan 1994 23:34:41 EST from
does anyone know of a good book or article on Sience in Latin America?
...................................................................
.. Jerry Hoeg .. asjvh@asuacad ..
..................................... asjvh@asuvm.inre.asu.edu ..
...................................................................
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 1994 03:02:23 -0700
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Marcella Greening
Subject: Re: SLS '94 Panel?
In-Reply-To: <199407282320.QAA07860@mizar.usc.edu> from
"Jerrold Hoeg" at Jul
28, 94 02:04:26 pm
Do you want stuff ABOUT science in Latin Am., or info about LA
scientists? Are you familiar with Fancisco Varela's work, or
his erstwhile colleague Maturana?
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 1994 11:37:29 -0400
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Andrew Grosso
Subject: Re: SLS '94 Panel?
In-Reply-To: <01HF98SN6ZK2005FEO@PASCAL.ACM.ORG>
Try Feynman's book, "Musings of Curious Character," or
something like
that. I has an interesting section on his experiences while teaching
physics in Brazil.
On Thu, 28 Jul 1994, Jerrold Hoeg wrote:
> does anyone know of a good book or article on Sience in Latin
America?
>
>
...................................................................
> .. Jerry Hoeg .. asjvh@asuacad
..
> ..................................... asjvh@asuvm.inre.asu.edu
..
>
...................................................................
>
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 1994 14:38:42 -0700
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Jerrold Hoeg
Subject: Re: SLS '94 Panel?
In-Reply-To: Message of Fri,
29 Jul 1994 03:02:23 -0700 from
Marcella,
I am looking for info about science, and the history of science, in La
t. Am. I am familiar with Varela and Maturama. I am also interested in
the re
lation, both present and past, between the sciences and the humanities
in Lat.
Am.
Thanks,
Jerry
...................................................................
.. Jerry Hoeg .. asjvh@asuacad ..
..................................... asjvh@asuvm.inre.asu.edu ..
...................................................................
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 1994 23:28:33 EDT
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: Heilan Yvette Grimes
Subject: Re: SLS '94 Panel?
>Try Feynman's book, "Musings of Curious Character," or
something like
>that. I has an interesting section on his experiences while
teaching
>physics in Brazil.
Isn't Feynman's book in which he talks bout teaching physics in Brazil,
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman?"
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 1994 18:30:52 +0000
Reply-To: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
Sender: "Society for Literature and Science - philos.,
tech.,
cyber discussion"
From: S S Kind
Subject: What is "Forensic"?
WHAT IS "FORENSIC"?
Would the opinion of an elderly forensic scientist help?
Think so? OK, here it is:
As an adjective "forensic" usually means "connected with,
or used in,
courts of law".
As a substantive it tends to mean "a speech or written thesis
maintaining one side or other of a given question" In this
second meaning it is largely restricted to the United States.
So says the third edition (1978) of the Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary, and I suspect Webster would say something similar.
But meanings drift with time and, already in 1952, when I started work
as a professional forensic scientist, I became used to police officers
hissing in my ear in court "are you from forensic?. So there we
have
another substantive meaning.
Yet another meaning has since evolved in the form of
"forensics" (cf.
physics) which is used to describe all those fields of science and
medicine which are commonly used in testimonial evidence, including DNA
identification studies, clinical and chemical toxicology, ballistics,
document examination, hair and fibre studies and many, many more. Get
hold of a copy of the Journal of Forensic Sciences (published USA),
or the Journal of the Forensic Science Society (published UK) and you
will see what I mean.
Forensic Science is now in its golden age (I was born forty years too
early) and to all those young scientists out there who are wondering
what to do with their degrees I suggest you think about joining us. We
forensic scientists are concerned about establishing the truth of the
matter in courts of law, and we are getting better at it every day.
My very best wishes to you all.
Stuart Kind, Harrogate, England. 8 pm local time,
Wednesday 27 July, 1994
file namefore.txt
TO: FORENSIC@UABDPO.BITNET and FORENS-L@ACC.FAU.EDU
